PC Engine Shuttle

From NEC Retro

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The PC Engine Shuttle (PCエンジンシャトル) is a cost-reduced PC Engine console released in Japan in late 1989.

Hardware

The PC Engine Shuttle stands as NEC's first attempt to reduce manufacturing costs of the PC Engine, though thanks to the state of the market at the time, the reductions were not passed on to the Japanese consumer, who could purchase a regular PC Engine for roughly the same price. Furthermore the Shuttle has a radically different design which makes it incompatible with most PC Engine add-ons (without significant modifications) - it lacks the rear expansion port for the CD-ROM², and is significantly bigger in size than a standard PC Engine console.

The Shuttle did not sell well, and was discontinued within the year. Its ideas were partially rectified with the PC Engine CoreGrafx released as a second cost-reduced PC Engine just a month later, but both systems have been questioned by critics of their fundemental need to exist.